I have finally succeeded in getting my Windows 2000 PC to print to my HP Deskjet 970 which is attached to my iMac. I know this works for USB inkjets. Your mileage may vary with other types of printers. Essentially, you don't use Samba at all, just CUPS.

Use a text editor to uncomment the following line towards the end of the mime.convs file (by removing the # sign):

#application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0 -

I usually use pico as the editor, as it is fairly self explanitory (sudo pico mime.convs).

Also uncomment the following line towards the end of the mime.types file:

#application/octet-stream

Restart CUPS so it takes your changes:

% sudo killall -1 cupsd

Open Internet Explorer and go to http://127.0.0.1:631/printers. This is the CUPS printer administration tool. You should see your printer there. Do not edit that printer. Instead, create a second printer for Windows to use. Editing the existing printer will render it unusable to the Mac.

Click "Add Printer". Give it a name that differs from your current printer setup; give it a location that makes sense (may be optional); give it a description (I used "970cse for Windows").

Click "Continue" and choose your printer from the Device list.

Click "Continue" and choose the make of your printer from the list. "HP" was in my list.

Click "Continue" and choose the model/driver for your printer. I had a few options, one of which was "HP New DeskJet Series CUPS v1.1 (en)".

Click "Continue". It will say your printer has been added. Click "Printers" at the top of the page to see all your printers. The new one should be there. Notice that the Device URI is different for the new printer you created. It should have the make and model of your printer along with a serial number. Mine looked like this:

usb://HEWLETT-PACKARD/DESKJET%20970C?serial=xxxxxxxxxxxx

(actual serial number blocked)

You are done setting up the printer on the Mac. Now you need to install it on your PC. These instructions are for Windows 2000. There could be slight variations with differet releases of Windows.

Open up printers from the Windows 2000 start menu.

Double click "Add Printer" and choose "Network Printer"

Choose the "Connect to a printer on the Internet or on your intranet"

Enter the URL for your Mac printer as follows:

http://192.168.xxx.xxx:631/printers/DESKJET_970C

Substitute whatever printer name you created in CUPS for "DESKJET_970C". Also be sure to substitute the correct IP address of your Mac for "192.168.xxx.xxx".

Once you've entered the correct URL for the Mac printer, you should be prompted for the location of the printer drivers on the Windows system. (I got this even though I had previously installed the drivers.) Browse to the drivers on the printer CD or download them from the manufacturer's website.

That should be it. At this point you should be able to print from your Windows PC and from your Mac.

I've followed all the instructions on this thread and on http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2002103106290511 but I still cannot print from my Win98 box. If I enter the URL as in the instructions here, I get told the printer is offline, and if I try browsing, I get "No permission to access resource" when clicking on the +.
As a side note, when trying to connect via file sharing, I get asked for a password which I don't know.
Any ideas?

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

I used this on my G5 Imac running Panther 10.3.9 and it works for several flavours of XP machines(HP, Toshiba, Fujitsu, a 'build yer own' that my son has). They can all get to the HP Deskjet 840C attached via USB to the Imac.

Brilliant Hint.

Only problem was that I had to change my user authentication from ;shadowhash; to ;basic; to get into the CUPS web interface(localhost:631), This apparently is a 'feature' of Panther that is supposed to be fixed in Tiger(doubtless I'll finf out on the 29th if I can get hold of a copy)

Hi,
I diligently followed the instructions of how to have a PC printing on a HP deskjet connected to a Mac (G4, OS X 10.2), happy to find a way to save my marriage :) and within only one day after asking a question about this. Everything run as predicted on the Mac side. I have a samba connection working between the Mac and the PC, so no problems in this part of networking. When installing a new printer (Windows ME), after saying I want a networkprinter I type in the address 'http://192.168.0.2:631/printers/deskjet_980c_W' and then I get a message about the printer being off line, though it isn't.
By coincidence also I don't manage to make a printer connection between my iBook with Airport and my G4, both of which are running OS X 10.2. Also there is an ApplteTalk connection, that facilitates exchanging files. The printer isn't just seen when using the Print Center on the iBook, adding a printer via AppleTalk through the local network.
Can you help me?
PM
Any

I also followed the instructions dilligently and received the same error message when attempting to configure from the windows side. I stumbled across another hint here today that helped me get through it (see http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2002103106290511).

Here's the changes to the instructions that worked for me:
1) There is an apparent limitation on the windows side to printer names of length 10.
2) At step 11 when configuring the printer on the mac side, choose Raw for the make
and Raw Queue for the model.

That's all the changes I needed to get my Epson Stylus Color 600 printer to work from windows (Win2K). This is obviously not an exact science as I've seen numerous different instructions; your milage may vary.

I am living proof that the combination of the original article plus your hint makes it work!

I did it with a Deskjet 842C, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why the tip wasn't working...I had my printer name as DESKJET_840C_WIN, and I kept getting the same error message that the printer didn't exist.

I read your addendum, changed the printer to DESKJETWIN, and....success!

I get beautiful test pages from the Mac
On the Windows side, I consistently get "Printer is off-line. You may install the drivers now, but you will not be able to print until the printer comes back on line" (or something to that effect) error whenever I try to add the printer.

I've changed the printer name so that it's < 10 characters, and I've changed it from HP to Raw & Raw Queue in CUPS.

I was wondering if the bad result of this action can't be attributed to the
fact that I'm using a PC with Windows ME installed. The only other
contribution here about having no result reported ME as the OS too. Any
comment on this?

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

my CUPS admin screen goes through a different path than this hint. Specifically, step 9 says 'pick your printer from the list'. My list contains Appletalk, USB, Internet (http), and so on. The next page asks me for a device URI, instead of providing one for me.

I use a Canon printer, which wasn't available in the dropdown menu using this hint (where the author selects HP). If your printer maker isn't listed either, you probably need to install the GIMP-Print package. No worries, though, it is a simple GUI install (thanks to the developers). The GIMP-Print package for OSX is at here
after installing, continue with this hint and you'll be on your way.

My Windows 2000 box is configured to use a network proxy server for http and https. Despite the fact I told it to bypass proxies for local addresses, it still kept trying to go through my proxy server to make the connection to CUPS. The solution was to tell it explicitly not to use the proxy when connecting to my Mac's IP address; after doing that everyone worked beautifully.

Anyone determined to get a USB printer shared with Windows using only one printer definition on the Mac side... don't bother. I don't know anyone that's managed it (assuming you still want to be able to print from the Mac, of course!) and it's not worth the effort.

I also recommend the author's advice to just use IPP (http://ipaddress:631/printers/printername) rather than fiddling about with Samba, which has the added elegance of PC users not being able to see the printer definition used by your Mac which they cannot print to. (Well, OK, you could achieve this behaviour by adding extra lines to smb.conf, but, again, why bother?)

One thing I wouldn't bother doing is selecting your printer manufacturer & model in the CUPS add printer procedure. The code needed to drive the printer is being generated by Windows, so you are as well just selecting 'raw', which will pass the print data through from Windows directly to the printer unmodified.

I agree 100%
Step #7 (Adding a printer to CUPS) should be in bold and all caps.
Do NOT try to use the same printer definition for both Mac printing and Windows printing!!!
Add a second CUPS printer definition!

Also I agree that it doesn't matter what printer definition you use. The output from Windows is already formatted by the driver on the Windows side and is being transfered to the printer in a raw format. This is why you had to uncomment those lines in Steps #3 and #4.

Also for those of you who are printing from Win98 PCs that don't have Internet Printing capabilities built in, try installing the Internet Printing package that comes with Windows ME (on the CDROM). It works fine in Win98 as well.

well this hint is great and for once XP has recognize the usb printer (canon) that is on my ibook. I want to print from XP but the only problem is that the printer is said inactive by XP but it works fine from my ibook where the printer is.

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

The process looked to be going ok, but after I added the HP officejet d135 as name "d135" and desc. "HPAIO" w/no location, the device option selected was "officejet d series", but that "automagically" has been changed to "usb" each time after I select "HP" or "raw" for the driver. I selected the option of "New deskjet series CUPS v1.1" and when I look at the printers page of the CUPS admin tool it looks fine with the same string outlined in the original post:<usb://Hewlett-Packard/officejet%20d%20series?serial=SGxxxxxxDYRQ>
I cannot print a test page, it shows as cancelled right after I submit it on the completed jobs page of the admin tool.

When I add the network printer on the win2k PC it looks good until it says that the server does not have a driver for the printer and "would I like to install one on the PC?" so I tried to do that using the HP install CD, and the latest download, and the correct driver files have been rejected by the process, I select the generic officejet driver that win2k wants to install and the print job submits to the OS-X 10.2.1 Mac. The Print Center app shows the new job in the queue with the message: "GenericClass: Waiting for device" The CUPS admin "completed job list" shows each submitted job as cancelled.

The lights are on, but no one is home. I poked around the file system, but made no changes other than what was outlined in the post. Os X is not the flavor of UNIX I am used to, so I figured I would ask the talented minds here on OSXhints.
I am sure the jobs are getting stuck because the print driver is not configured correctly (On either side!). The gui tools do not seem to offer the flexibility I need to match the correct print driver to the new queue on the Mac. I think the driver on the PC is less important as far as just printing is concerned.

I have this exact same problem with an hp dekjet 1220c/ps. I cannot print a test page from the cups admin page to either the existing printer or the new one that I created following the directions. All the jobs that I print from the windows box show up in the job list as cancelled.

I suspect this is some sort of messed up permissions problem but I have no idea how to fix it.

I found on <h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=bpm30014>
an HP support document titled:
"HP All-in-One Product Family - USB Sharing Not Supported on a Macintosh"

HP d series officejets will connect via USB to a Mac., but will not share over a network. They do not support the USB Sharing function at this time although it may work with other HP printers. There's my answer.
Wish I would have found this document *before* I posted my question...

I've been able to share my d135 from my iMac to my wirelessly connected TiBook and my wired Pismo running 10.2.2. I have had problems with the HP AIO software on 10.2.2, so I'm using the drivers from HPIJS. Still sharing fine with these nice open source drivers.

Being slightly offtopic, I would like to ask if anybody is experiencing problems with printing to 970Cxi on the Mac. I never used CUPS and I diligently kept downloading and installing new versions of HP drivers. My printer stopped working either after upgrade to 10.2.1 or after the HP drivers upgrade. It disappeared from the Print Center and I can't add it back (if I try, I get an error message).

Fortunately enough, I turned on CUPS and the driver there is working as a backup. I treat is as a fallback solution, though. Anybody have any ideas on how to fix this?

I got the XP machine to send the file to the mac. When I open the print center for the second printer I added, the file is there to be printed. But It just sits there and says "GenericClass: waiting for device"

PixelHead, I have the exact same problem. I'm bummed. It's my wife w/ the XP box, and I'm sick 'n tired of having to re-patch the usb cable back and forth between my Mac (Panther) and her XP laptop.
I too, see the job in the new queue that's setup, but it's just hanging there with the barber poll, saying, "GenericClass: waiting for device".

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

I previously posted this to a wrong comment so this is a second posting. Please help all the same.

I have successfully followed each step but when I got to ipaddress.xx/631:printers to add a second printer I get the following error:
"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access the resource on this server."

I am signed in as the adminstrator and I have also repaired permissions just in case.

<I have successfully followed each step but when I got to ipaddress.xx/631:printers to add a second printer I get the following error:
"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access the resource on this server." >

This happens when you try it with IE 5.2. Just do it with OmniWeb and everything will be fine.

What about printing to a serial printer through a keyspan USB to serial adaptor? Has anyone tried that? Can anyone give me any hints, such as how to type the correct port so that it passes through to the keyspan and then the serial port 1 (or 2) on the keyspan? I want to use the old deskwriter for black and white only print jobs. It still works great-can't see tossing the thing.

You'll need to add your devices to the list of serial ports that are
recognized; otherwise the scheduler will not know about the device
and won't allow you to use it...

One simple way you can add support for your serial ports is to create
a shell script in /usr/libexec/cups/backend that contains the
following (the name of the script is not critical;
"serial.local",
"myserialports", etc. will all work):

I have followed all of the steps listed above for setting up the printer but am unable to print to the Epson on my mac. I have connected to the Epson from the Windows XP box and have even printed from printer preferences panel and can print using the various epson utilities without a problem. However when I can to Properites and try to print a test page Windows tells me immediately that the print failed. Does anyone have any ideas?

i tried this hint with my HP Deskjet 640C.
Well. I can see it on my Windows 2000 PC via browser, acessing http://192.168.xxx.xx:631/printers...
and i can "Print Test Page".. but, when i tried to add a printer on printer configurations, it isn't possible. that's an error.

I've failed with this on Jaguar connected to an HP LaserJet 1200 by
USB. My wife's machine is stock Win2K.

When I print from the Win2K box, the output looks like uninterpreted
PCL:

<gibberish>
@PJL COMMENT "..."
@PJL SET RET=ON
<ad infinitum>

This happens both when I set the printer up as in the original
instructions and also when I use "raw".

Perhaps worth noting:

- The same thing happens when I print from the Mac to the new printer
definition. (It continues to work when I print to the original.) In
this case, the gibberish looks different. (CUPS describes the
original printer as a "generic postscript printer", so it's
presumably postscript-ish gibberish.)

- When I click on the print test page for the new printer definition,
the page is sent, but nothing happens. When I look at the completed
jobs, I see: "cancelled at <date/time>". (The gibberish jobs show
as completed.)

Note: I installed the LaserJet 1200 PPD file. Didn't change anything when printing from the Mac: I still get gibberish. Now when I print from Win2K, nothing appears. The job is listed as cancelled in the CUPS admin page.

The following worked for me.
1. Configure the second copy of HP LaserJet 1200 on mac as a generic postscript printer.
2. Create a network printer on win** (win98 in my case) and configure it as Apple LaserWriter II NT

This worked for me as well except I found I didn't need to create a second LaserJet 1200 printer driver on the Mac - the normal OS X driver worked with Windows XP thinking it was printing to an Apple LaserWriter II NT.

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

Works great from XP but not from Win 2k
Authored by: simonfransson on Dec 15, '02 11:29:35AM

I configured my iMac with an Epson SC 670 hooked up to share the printer as described above. I was actually able to use the same printer config for printing from both OS X and Windows. I think that's because I was using a CUPS printer from the beginning since there is no official OS X driver for the SC 670.
Printing from my XP machine works absolutely great, couldn't be better! But when I try to add the printer on my Laptop running Windows 2000 it fails. The Add Printer Wizard tells me that the printer is offline, even though it's functioning perfectly and it's possible to print from both the Mac and the XP machine. I also tried chaning the port on a local printer without success. The http port was in the list since I had tried to use it but when I try to use it I get an error message telling me that the port is unavailable. I also tried clicking "Configure ports" in the printer properties, but then it said something like "service unsupported" (I'm not really sure what the exact trem is since I'm running a swedish language Windows version).
Can anyone help me with this?

kirst time I've actually used terminal for something and it worked. Thanks for the clear instructions. My wife's xp laptop now prints wirelessly to the Epson C80 connected to my quicksilver g4... no more unplugging and replugging.

Great post. Works perfectly printing from Windows XP Pro, but Win2K Pro refuses to let me create / add the printer using the URL http://192.168.0.102:631/printers/DJ812C. It insists it doesn't exist. I suspected IE security / proxy settings, but nothing I've tried seems to make a difference.

Thanks a lot, bro! And anyone else too that helped, sometimes in bits
and chips:
After breaking my head for 2 weeks...it works great!
WHY does it have to be this complicated? OK, they're using Windows and
we are using Mac, but we are all people, isn't it?
See you around!

I had problems getting to print from my windows machines. Every time I send a print job I got a postscript error output....which made me wonder for some time since this is not a postscript printer.

Then I saw the light.

I had installed this printer on both my mac and my win2000 server. (i switched my usb cable between my mac and my server) Since I have more than one win box I shared this printer. So macosx saw this printer on the network when trying to install the CUPS printer. So instead of pointing to the physical printer it pointed to the shared windows printer.
As soon as I stopped printer sharing it saw my DESKJET970 and suddenly everything worked.

Works like a charm. My W2k laptop now prints to a HP 840C via airport extreme and a G4. It did create a new problem though, I can't print from the G4 anymore. The printer is stopped and stays stopped after a start command. I trashed/reinstalled it but no change. For the time being I can print with the cups printer driver but it isn't quite the same. Anybody got a clue? ( I didn't change anything on the cups config page btw)

I've been trying to share a Canon S520 on an iMAC G4 800 with a Windows ME system for the past couple of days and had little joy until I came across this hint. I followed all the steps diligently but when I connected the Win ME system there was a message that the printer was off-line. I was able to see through to Cups on the Mac from Windows using Internet Explorer with http://192.168.xxx.xxx:631/printers/printername so the intranet appeared all right. I tried many things until in a fit of desperation I tried connecting with \\server\printersharename. Voila! It works.

Many thanks for the main body of the hint as without it there is little doubt that I would still be floundering and my wife would be very unhappy.

As mentioned in another reply here, I too had a bit of trouble getting this to work due to a difference in the sequence of steps after step 8- i.e. after step 8 i was prompted for a device url location. I tried a number of different approaches outlined in replies here, but nothing seemed to work, and I couldn't figure out how to get the specific correct usb:// device url I should enter. Finally in another thread i stumbled across the solution, and thought i would post it here to save anyone else in my predicament a little time and trouble. So to determine the correct device url:

1. Open the Print Center in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder.
2. Select the printer from the list (in my case the STYLUS C80)
3. Hold down the Option/Alt key and click the Add button
4. Select the "Advanced" option from the drop down menu
5. Then select the STYLUS C80 printer from the "Device" menu 6. This results in the device URI being displayed in the field in the format outlined in the directions above.

After discovering that, set up was easy following the procedure outlined above and printing from my wife's Win2K box works great.

I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

I've gotten my printer properly set up with CUPS, but, when I try to
configure it on the PC, I get a request for a password after I specify \\
MyHost\Printer or whatever. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this
a problem on the Mac or Windows side, or both?

I'm trying to get this hint to work with a Photosmart 1115. Everything works fine but only when there is no user logged in on the mac. I'm using an 17inch imac and a dell Pc with XP. Any ideas on how to get it to print without having to logg out of the mac?

All went well with the install, but my HP officejet d 145 would not print. The HD on the Mac clicked right along, the printer showed up in WINDOZ, the CUPS on Internet Explorer showed the printer, and the print job as "processing", but no output!
I tried using the raw printer as noted by another user below, but still nothing printed.
Does anyone have any ideas?

If you installed the printer using the HP CD ROM, it installs the drivers along with a suite of software called "HP Director." This has a related service that runs and locks the USB port to only that software. Stopping the service called "HP Communications" will allow printing via CUPS. I had a script that I would run on startup to kill that ...

Sorry, this didn't work for me. I've got an HP LaserJet 6MP on a Farallon iPrint localtalk/ethernet bridge. On the ethernet I have a G4 which prints fine (over Appletalk) and a Windows XP machine.

I tried it without steps 3 & 4 and it works kind of ok. Printing from Windows XP prints normally, except every print job has an extra two pages; one blank and one with a postscript error:
"ERROR: undefined
OFFENDING COMMAND:
STACK:"

I've repeated this setup at two different physical locations with two similar setups, both with a Mac, an XP box, and a LaserJet 6MP on an ethertalk bridge.

Then I tried it with steps 3 & 4 and it got worse.
I got a nightmarish system crash. A dialog in 4 languages says "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button."

I tried this a couple of different ways with CUPS, both identifying the windows printer as a raw device and as an HP LaserJet 6MP, but either way the nasty crash occurs within a few minutes of setting up the printer.

Any help would be appreciated! I'm trying to do just this (almost), print to a USB Epson 1280 from WXP. The setup works great, CUPS works great, WXP thinks it has successfully printed, but ... nothing ever prints! I go to the CUPS interface (localhost:631) and choose Manage Jobs and I can see that every single job I've sent from WXP has been received and marked "cancelled". I get error-client-not-possible when I try the Restart button next to the cancelled job. I can even use the new usb driver from the Mac itself -- and it works fine -- just not from WXP. We're so close, but still so far!

I had sucessfully used this hint to enable printing from WinXP to a Canon i450 attached to my iBook running Mac OS X 10.2.8.
Sadly after upgrading to Panther it didn't work any more, even after I worked through the hint anew.
Any ideas would be a lifesaver.
Many thanks.

I solved my own problem with the help of the info here:
http://www.allosx.com/1030154694/index_html
I basically managed to get it working by adding the printer from the Printer Setup Utility rather than using the http://127.0.0.1:631/printers link.

Hey Hoosier,
I followed all your instructions to the letter (great post by the way) but unfortunately, it doesn't work for my printer, an HP Photosmart 7550, which is disconcerting because it's a relatively new printer on their (HP) product line. Basically, the job makes it from the Win box to the print queue on the iMac, but then it just sites there and says, "GenericClass - Waiting for Device". A few things I've done already:

1) I got to step 11 in your post, but my "model/driver" doesn't show up in the list.
2) I then tried to use "raw" and "raw-queue" as suggested in one of the replies to your post. No joy.
3) I downloaded and installed the Gimp Print drivers for my HP (actually, even Gimp doesnt' make a Gimp compatible driver for my Photosmart 7550, but on Sourceforge.net's site, they have a driver compatilbility chart, and I selected those drivers instead (HP Deskjet 550c drivers, also HP Deskjet 900 Series drivers). Still no joy.

No matter what I do, the job DOES go to the queue on the Mac that has printer sharing enabled, but that's all... it just sits there w/ that message of "GenericClass -Waiting for Device".
Any ideas Bro??? This is really driving me crazy, and I've used up all of my resources. I'm completely stumpted!!

Hey Folks,
This is a great hint, but it's not working for me. I got to the point in step 10, but my printer's not there (I have an HP Photosmart 7550), so, I downloaded and used GimpPrint, per the suggestion on this board. What happens is the job DOES go to queue in the iMac that the printer's connected to, but it just sits there and never prints. The status messages also reads, "GenericClass: waiting for device". Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks!! --Mike

I followed the instructions to the letter - I get to adding a printer in windows (driver already installed), type in the URL, and I get the windows error "Could not connect to the printer. Access is denied." This, I believe, indicates that the printer exists, but access is blocked - any ideas? I have turned windows file sharing on, also.

I'm trying to help someone with this via email. When she types in 'pico mime.types', she can make the change. She presses Ctrl-X to exit and is prompted to save the buffer. She answers Y to this, and is prompted for the filename, ehich is mime.types by default. She presses Enter and the message 'File Not Found' is shown.

Her machine is running 10.3. Is this because sudo is not in effect? I've tried it both ways on my G3 AIO with 10.2.6. With sudo, it saves correctly. Without it, I get the message 'can not open file for writing'.

Not working after Security Update?
Authored by: R2K on Apr 19, '04 08:44:40AM

This hint worked perfectly, but after installing Security Update 2004-04-05 (which, among others, installs security updates to CUPS printing), it doesn't work anymore.For example, if you want to add a printer via your browser (localhost:631) you are now asked for a password. Only the root password will work here.

Main problem however is that printing from windows doens't work anymore, and removing the printer in windows and installing it again doesn't work either (can't connect to printer).

I recently had this issue after upgrading my iMac 233 [original Bondi running 512Mb Ram, 40Gig HD] from Jaguar to Panther, plus all the Security Updates. This was also however a HD upgrade [from the original 4Gig to 40Gig taken from my G4], so the Panther install was a fresh install. Having configured the printer via CUPs as mentioned above on Jaguar i thought i could just repeat the process on Panther! But at stage 7 i was stuck. CUPs would not allow me to login - even as root. I tried several other ways, even configuring the printers.conf file with Terminal.
Cut to the chase, here's how i worked it:
01- Follow Hoosier_1701 instructions above until step 7.
01a- I had to install gimp-print-4.2.7 [found here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-print/gimp-print-4.2.7-0.ppc.dmg?download ] to get the driver for my printer but YOU MAY NOT NEED TO DO THIS
02- Open Printer Setup Utility
03a- Alt-Click Add [to allow access to the Advanced menu]
03b- Select Advanced at the bottom of the drop down
03c- Select your USB printer from the Device list, should be named and at the very bottom of the drop down [to get the URI only]
03d- Copy the Device URI which looks like - usb://Canon/i250?serial=xxxxxx [this will be your printer]
04a- Then reselect from the Device list USB Printer [as it says: USB Printer]
03b- enter an alternate name for your printer in Device Name, like i250pc
04c- then paste the URI into Device URI
04d- then select your Printer Model from the drop down menu! [mine was the gimp-print driver version, if your regular driver doesn't work try installing gimp-print as in step 01a]
05- then, if you haven't already set up the PC, follow Hoosier_1701 instructions for this
That should be it! Works fine for me now... Good Luck!

I recently had an issue after upgrading my iMac 233 [original Bondi running 512Mb Ram, 40Gig HD] from Jaguar to Panther, plus all the Security Updates. This was also however a HD upgrade [from the original 4Gig to 40Gig taken from my G4], so the Panther install was a fresh install. Having configured the printer via CUPs as mentioned above on Jaguar i thought i could just repeat the process on Panther! But at stage 7 i was stuck. CUPs would not allow me to login - even as root. I tried several other ways, even configuring the printers.conf file with Terminal.
Cut to the chase, here's how i worked it:
01- Follow Hoosier_1701 instructions above until step 7.
01a- I had to install gimp-print-4.2.7 [found here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gimp-print/gimp-print-4.2.7-0.ppc.dmg?download ] to get the driver for my printer but YOU MAY NOT NEED TO DO THIS
02- Open Printer Setup Utility
03a- Alt-Click Add [to allow access to the Advanced menu]
03b- Select Advanced at the bottom of the drop down
03c- Select your USB printer from the Device list, should be named and at the very bottom of the drop down [to get the URI only]
03d- Copy the Device URI which looks like - usb://Canon/i250?serial=xxxxxx [this will be your printer]
04a- Then reselect from the Device list USB Printer [as it says: USB Printer]
03b- enter an alternate name for your printer in Device Name, like i250pc
04c- then paste the URI into Device URI
04d- then select your Printer Model from the drop down menu! [mine was the gimp-print driver version, if your regular driver doesn't work try installing gimp-print as in step 01a]
05- then, if you haven't already set up the PC, follow Hoosier_1701 instructions for this
That should be it! Works fine for me now... Good Luck!

I followed these instructions, however, I cannot print a test page from the CUPS web interface from neither my iMac, nor my XP machine. The interface says "Processing since", and an lpstat says "GenericClass:waiting for device". The same thing happens when I try to print from the XP machine and view the lpstat and the CUPS web interface. I have installed the HP Photosmart 7350 (inkjet) driver on the iMac, and I can print, just not using the CUPS interface or from XP. The OS is panther. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been hacking away for over a week. Thanks.

I have what looks to be a similar problem. I get a "No pages found!" error when I run a test page.

I checked the error.log in /private/var/log/cups/ and found the following error. Something to do with the pstocupsraster. No idea what is going on. I've given up on using CUPS on 10.3.7. Frustrating because I know a few updates before 10.3.7 it worked.

I had problems using the web admin 127.0.0.1:631/printers. I was able to get to it but could not add or configure anything. I read after doing the fix below that if you log on as root (need to enable it) everything should work regardless, but didn't try it.

Anyway, the fix I found was modifying the authorizations in /private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf. My problem was in the <Limit GET> section. The file is pretty self-explanatory as how to configure authorizations (type and class). In my case I made it authtype none, and authclass anonymous and it seemed to do the trick. Don't know if I've greated a huge security hole, but you can always do the updating in the server and put limitation in.
Here is the CUPS manual has more details on configuring: http://www.cups.org/sam.html

If you have a wireless internet connection
Authored by: pontus66 on Mar 02, '05 02:55:25PM

Thanks for this great info - it worked for me. I can now print from windows XP to my Canon i860 (RAW) on an iMac G5.

First I had it hooked up to my Airport Express as a wireless printer, but I didn't think that would work so I put it directly into one of my free USB ports on the Mac.

Every step was the same except the Mac's IP number is a bit different when using Airport. You can see the number by going into System Preferences/Network and choosing Airport and then clicking the TCP/IP tab.

This solution worked for me. One caveat: If you're using Panther (10.3.x) you may be denied login to CUPS administrative functions. If so, you will need to modify cupsd.conf to enable configuration of a new CUPS printer on your mac. See:
<http://www.cups.org/articles.php?L191+I0+T+P1+Qpanther>
I used workaround #1 with success.

I tried Bonjour for Windows 1.0.2 with no success.
The OSX created print queue for the HP 740c would put all sent test pages from any XP system straight into 'COMPLETED' without printing - that was for a normal OSX windows share or a Bonjour setup share.

I was scared by the terminal SUDO type business, and opted to view the files in BBedit by using OSX's "Go to folder..." system menu under "Go" and typed in /etc/cups.

The resulting directory showed the two files "mime.convs" and "mime.types", looking at the code in BBedit (or any text editor i think)
I noticed that the lines were already uncommented, as needed.
I then went to the trusty firefox 1.5 browser and typed the address "http://127.0.0.1:631/printers" and got the CUPS printer administration interface.

Created another printer as instructed,
then added the new printer in Windows XP as instructed, and the test pages printed correctly through the mac to the Hewlett Packard 940c.

Hope this updated noob version of Hoosier_1701's fantastic instruction saves some of you the afternoon it cost me.

All this was needed because my amzing Apple Laserwriter 12/640 PS expired after a decade of trusty use - r.i.p.

THANKS for this little tutorial. It seemed really stupid for me to spend $50-60 on a network printer hub when my Mac is connected to my Epson CX3200 all day long. Following this OSX hint using OSX 10.3.x allowed me to set up and have numerous wireless PCs print to the Epson.

Awesome that we have informative places like this on the web... makes the occasional headaches all worth it...